New York City Councilwoman-elect Laurie Cumbo has apologized for a previous statement about the “knockout” attacks on Jews in Brooklyn blaming “the accomplishments of the Jewish community” for “feelings of resentment” among the African American community. She also said that black residents in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn fear being “pushed out by their Jewish […]

New York Democratic Congressman Eliot Engel has been appointed chairman of an umbrella body for Jewish lawmakers worldwide, succeeding Italy’s Fiamma Nirenstein, who recently made aliyah to Israel. The steering committee of the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians named Engel, the senior Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, as its chairman […]

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a Hanukkah party Monday night that he will use the $1 million Genesis Prize to “promote commerce between the people in Palestine and the people in Israel,” the Daily Forward reported. It is not yet known which organizations will be assisted by the prize money. Bloomberg made […]

A federal court began hearing arguments on Tuesday by orthodox Jews appealing a New York City rule that requires parents to agree to the rite of oral suction in circumcisions, The New York Daily News reported. The city restricted the practice following 11 cases of herpes of boys who were circumcised with what in Hebrew […]

Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein recalled the role of his rabbi and Jewish organizations in helping him realize he could succeed despite growing up in a working-class neighborhood. “The only person I knew who put on a suit everyday was our rabbi,” Blankfein told a crowd of 1,700 fellow Wall Street insiders and guests Monday […]

Some law enforcement officials fear labeling "Knockout" a hate crime as it may inspire more copycat attacks, while several public officials have pushed for wider discussion of the trend and increased penalties.

Yeshiva University President Richard Joel acknowledged the school was facing “substantial deficits.” In an email to faculty and staff obtained by JTA, Joel disclosed that the measures taken to shore up finances at the New York City university following the financial crisis in 2008 have been insufficient. “We intended to achieve a balanced budget by […]